Books

I love to read.  I will read all day for weeks at a time and then go off it and do other things.  I actually watch television and know the score in the cricket.  I may even tidy up the house, clean the stove or defrost the fridge.  I do love a nice thick book.  I am a very fast reader so the bigger the book the better. I have wide ranging taste in books so I read from biographys to murder mysteries.  I also love fantasy stories.  I have the all of Sara Douglass', books.  She attended Adelaide University  a year or so before I did and had the same lecturer; Dr. A. Lynn Martin.  She dedicated her first book to him and he was extremely chuffed about it.  I also have every book written by Katherine Kerr about the Deverry cycle.  I think it took her about ten years between the last couple of books.  I used to look for her next effort in the Angus and Robertson all the time.  Whether she was ill or otherwise indisposed I don't know, but I looked forward to the  next book and was extremely worried about her kicking the bucket before she had satisfied my curiosity. 

I loved to read columns by Max Fatchen, may he rest in peace.  I also used to read Irma Bombeck and Shirley Stott Despoja.  (I wonder if I have spelled that correctly.)  Shirley used to call her ex-husband, The Man Who Is Glad He Is Not Married To Me.  In my blog I call my daughter The Child of my Loins mainly because I do not want to embarrass her.  She particularly hates me telling stories about her childhood.  As she seems to be the censor of my written words I go along with her phobias. 

The older I get the more I have to say because  I am puzzled about the way life works so I have to voice my amazement.  I am puzzled about how I changed from someone in their thirties into someone in their sixties all in what seemed to be a moment.  I guess I used the intervening time up by reading.  If I keep on reading I may open my eyes one morning and find out I am in my eighties. 

My latest wish is to own some kind of thing that I think is called a Kindle.  I believe that one can download huge numbers of books for nominal prices and have them all on hand to read anywhere.  I think though that I need a real book to read.  A book does not need electricity to read it although it does need light, plus it does not die when the battery is flat.  I like to read in the evening in the pool of light shed by my tiffany lamp.  Read a book and disappear into its pages!  Sometimes I stop reading and am amazed to find I am not walking along a secret pathway with Bilbo Baggins or sailing from America to Hawaii.  Reading fills a deep seated need in me and is my favourite exercise.

I have a post script.  The Child of my Loins bought me a Kindle.  It is amazing.  I have over three hundred books on it and there is room for about one thousand more.  It is compact and fits neatly in my handbag.  I have only had to power it up once since I have had it.  The Child also bought me a little case to protect it and  a clip light so I can read in bed in the dark.  Who needs a torch now?  Therefore, I love my Kindle.  It is the absolute best present that the Child has bought me so far this year.